A UK view on Cyber, Information & IT Security by Security Expert Dave Whitelegg. Providing advice and explaining security for everyone, and also contemplating advanced themes and future trends in security.
With a focus on all the latest developments & issues within the UK Information Security space such as Hacking, DDoS, Botnets, Malware, Identity Theft, Data Protection (DPA) and regulatory compliance like PCI DSS & ISO27001:2013, all will be explained in an easy to understand way.

Monday, 9 September 2013

Square Enix Final Fantasy XIV Accounts Security Warning

Today (9th Sept), Square Enix posted an urgent security warning concerning account security for the game. Confirming a "third party" was using account names and passwords, which they believe to have been obtained from security breaches of other companys' online services.

1. For the Money. Rare in game items, which it can take many hours of gameplay and luck to obtain, can be sold off in game auction houses for a great deal of game currency. Players over the course of time built up lots of such items and lots of in game currency (gold/gill), these rewards for sometimes hundreds of hours of gameplay have a value. This in game currency can be transferred out of the character/gaming account and then sold on for real currency online. Some gamers buy in game money from third party operators, this is already available in FF14, just google it. Typically $8 will buy you 100K gill (in game money), $500 will buy $6M, the latter allows you to operate a reseller, using the in game chat systems to sell it. Yes this is strictly against the game rules, but it goes on in every game of this type. The bottom line, access to your gamer account = Cash to the bad guy.

2. Good old fashioned Revenge. People piss other people off within the game, as a way of getting back at a player, some will try to hack other player's gamer account. If successful, they strip the character of items, steal all their gaming money, lock them out from playing, and even delete their character.

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